


Nightmares

by livingthroughchoices



Category: The Royal Romance (Visual Novel)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, One Shot, autumn prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 06:36:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19847587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livingthroughchoices/pseuds/livingthroughchoices
Summary: Someone’s having nightmares and it’s up to Drake to comfort them.





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> This is a quick one-shot from my list of Autumn Prompts on Tumblr.
> 
> Tumblr: livingthroughchoices.tumblr.com
> 
> Enjoy!

“It’s your turn,” he mumbled.

“Uh, no way, Drake.”

His wife turned to glare at him in the dark – he couldn’t _see_ the glare, but he could feel it – sounding far more awake than he was.

“ _Who_ thought it was a great idea to let her watch Hocus Pocus before bed?” She raised an eyebrow at him and propped herself up on her elbow.

“Aw, come on! It’s an American classic! Plus, it’s not even scary!”

She chuckled, “Well, I’m sure if you explain that to our five year-old, she’ll go right back to sleep.” She rolled her eyes and sank back down on her pillow, deeming the conversation over. Sleep deprivation was the only thing that could make Riley grumpier than he was, so he figured he owed her.

With a groan, Drake swung out of bed, shuffling to his daughter’s room. Soft sobs were coming through the door. Any remnants of annoyance fell away as Drake felt his heart soften for his little girl. He opened the door slowly, not wanting to startle her.

“Hey, peanut. What’s wrong?”

“D-daddy,” she heaved between sobs. “I had a nightmare.”

Drake closed the door just as carefully as before so as not to wake up Riley. He crept to her bed and sat down next to her, putting a comforting arm around her small frame.

“That sucks. You wanna tell me about it?”

She sniffed and nodded.

“I was in my room and the witches from yesterday came in.” Her voice was still thick with tears, but she’d stopped crying.

Drake rubbed her back, feeling guilty for letting her watch the movie the night before. _Nice going, moron. She’s traumatized._

“Did the witches scare you, Ronnie? I’m sorry.” He stroked her hair and continued, “But they’re not real, okay? And Mom and I–”

“No!” She pushed him away. “It wasn’t the witches, Dad!”

Drake furrowed his brow in confusion and to try to make out her face in the gloom. “It wasn’t? Then what happened?”

“They said you and Mom wanted me to go downstairs. So I went and it was one of your boring parties and…” her bottom lip quivered, “y-you both said I h-had to staaay.”

The last word mixed with her biggest sob yet.

Drake fought the urge to laugh, while at the same time feeling a knot in his throat. _God, I love this kid._

He kissed the top of her head and said in a choked voice, “I love you, peanut. And guess what? I hate those parties too, but sometimes you gotta stay a while.”

“But I d-don’t w-wannaaa.”

Her crying was getting louder and Drake shushed her gently.

“Okay, what if we make a deal?”

Veronica immediately stopped crying, sniffling occasionally but otherwise completely attentive to Drake’s proposal.

“We’ll have a secret signal, kinda like Bastien.” The girl’s face lit up at the mention of her favorite royal guard and grandfather figure.

“When one of us makes it, it means we need a break and we can slip out for a little bit, sound good?”

His daughter let out a long sigh to steady her breath and nodded, a smile slowly pushing her frown away.

“Well, she’s definitely your daughter.” Riley’s laughing voice came from the doorway.

“How long have you been there?”

“A while.” She was grinning now. She sat down next to Drake and enveloped them in a huge hug.

“I love you both, you grumps.” 

Ronnie giggled and as he hugged his two favorite people in the world, Drake suddenly didn’t mind that he’d been woken up at an ungodly hour.


End file.
